WICKED!

Considering how few words the Tannaim used when teaching, it is hardly surprising that their teachings have generated so many comments and explanations. From our own experience, we see how words that are taken out of context—or which are never given a context in the first place—can be twisted, misunderstood or merely interpreted in so many different ways that the impact of their brevity is lost. In modern times, two “classics” come to mind. The first is the instruction “To avoid suffocation keep away from children”—which only carries a useful meaning when printed on a polythene bag. The second, “Stand in boiling water for two minutes”, requires a different context entirely, being a cooking instruction for a canned pudding. Fortunately, the words of our Mishnaic sages are less extreme cases but, even so, they demand some form of context or background—and may attract several competing explanations.

At Avot 2:18 Rabbi Shimon ben Netanel says:

אַל תְּהִי רָשָׁע בִּפְנֵי עַצְמֶֽךָ

Do not be wicked bifnei atzmecha (“before yourself”, “inside yourself”, “on your own”)

The precise meaning of this injunction, and of the words bifnei atzmecha, is unclear, as we see from our commentators. No context is supplied and the Tanna points to no particular objective. For the Rambam, this teaching means not judging oneself as a wicked person. The Bartenura (with whom the commentary ascribed to Rashi agrees) says it means not doing something today if tomorrow you will regard yourself as being evil for having done it. Rabbenu Yonah, author of the Sha’arei Teshuvah, puts a teshuvah-related spin on it: don’t regard yourself as being wicked since you always have the option to repent. He then adds, with an eye on Yom Kippur and Divine judgement, that you should regard yourself as half-guilty and half-innocent: your next action might then lead either to acquittal or condemnation. As for the Me’iri, his take on Rabbi Shimon ben Netanel’s words is that, if you regard yourself as being wicked when you are not, you may come to do things that are wicked. More recently, the Ru’ach Chaim reads here a caution against looking righteous and wrapping yourself in tallit and tefillin when you are inwardly seething with evil thoughts.

One can travel even further in a quest for an explanation. Thus Rabbi Yaakov Hillel (Eternal Ethics From Sinai) picks up on a Gemara (Berachot 8a) that teaches that anyone who has a synagogue in his city but prays by himself is a shochen ra, a bad neighbour. Perhaps this then is the clue: since bifnei atzmecha can also be understood as meaning “on one’s own”, Rabbi Shimon ben Netanel must have been cautioning against praying at home by home. Alternatively, according to Rabbi Hillel, a person who brazenly defies our Sages by praying by himself is automatically deemed “wicked”. Rabbi Yehoshua Heschel of Monstritch turns this idea on its head: one is only allowed to view oneself as wicked, sinful and downright inadequate if one prays with other people, by analogy of the blend of spices and herbs that made up the ketoret—the incense offering in the Temple—which would be invalidated by the absence of the foul-smelling chelbanah. In such a case, one can feel wicked in the safe knowledge that one’s wickedness is cancelled out by the company one keeps.

How much of this speaks to us today? These analyses do not reflect our way of looking at the world—or ourselves—in an era in which the vocabulary of obedience and deviancy has so greatly changed. Words like ‘sin’ are marginalized and have faded from daily parlance; ‘evil’ is now a convenient epithet for someone with whom one has a major disagreement and ‘wicked’ is now a popular musical-turned-movie (run the word through your favourite browser if you don’t believe me).  But our mishnah is not lost.

Coming to the rescue is Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski (Visions of The Fathers), who examines the Tanna’s pronouncement from his own perspective as a psychiatrist.  Do not think of yourself as an inherently bad person, he counsels. Rather, view yourself as a person who is fundamentally good but who has done bad things. Condemn the act, not the actor. This explanation might even be what Rabbi Shimon ben Netanel had in mind, and it is closer to his words than some of the explanations we reviewed earlier.

For comments and discussion of this post on Facebook, click here

Doing something wrong? Then go with the flow

One of the three teachings we learn in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Netanel at Avot 2:18 is אַל תְּהִי רָשָׁע בִּפְנֵי עַצְמֶֽךָ. Most commentators and English translators take much the same view of the Tanna’s message. Typical of this consensus are the following:

• “Do not be wicked in your own eyes” (chabad.org; Rabbi Lord Sacks substitutes ‘evil’ for ‘wicked’)
• “Do not judge yourself to be a wicked person” (ArtScroll)

Some go further and incorporate further guidance. Thus:

• “Do not be wicked in your own esteem [lest you set yourself a low standard of conduct]” (Philip Birnbaum, HaSiddur HaShalem)
• “Do not consider yourself as wicked when left to depend on your own efforts” (Rabbi Shimshon Refael Hirsch, The Hirsch Pirkei Avos, tr. Hirschler/Haberman)

One aspect of this teaching that invites further discussion is the choice of the words “בִּפְנֵי עַצְמֶֽךָ”. This is the reflexive part of the mishnah. Rendered “yourself”, “in your own esteem” or “in your own eyes” in the translations quoted above, the words literally mean “before yourself” or “in front of yourself”—words that do not flow comfortably in English.

An interesting interpretation of these words in the context of this teaching appears in Rabbi Reuven Melamed’s Melitz Yosher. Here follows my expansion of his brief words.

We believe that, when a person performs a mitzvah or a generally meritorious act, this deed will attract a reward. Not all actions are equally rewarded. Those good deeds that are practised by everyone on a regular basis may be regarded as the products of good habits. They are unlikely to require a person to struggle against their yetzer hara, their evil inclination, in order to perform them. On the contrary, since everyone else around them is carrying on with the same conduct, there may even be peer pressure to continue do to those meritorious acts that attract rewards. This being so, since the effort involved in performing them is likely to be small, the reward for doing them will be small too. Only where the effort is great, and where a person exceeds the standards set by others, will the reward be great (“According to the effort, so is the reward”: Avot 5:26).

The same principles apply, mutatis mutandis, to averot (misdeeds) and generally poor conduct. Where a person’s breach of legal or social standards of behaviour is commonplace, shared by most or all fellow humans, it may have been the product of nothing worse than bad habits. All the miscreant is doing, after all, is to go with the flow. For such misdeeds, the punishment may be expected to be small. Indeed, as the Pele Yo’etz comments, a person who performs the same wrongful deeds as everyone else does at least have the virtue of respecting Hillel’s precept (Avot 2:5) of not separating himself from the rest of the community. However, if a wrongful act requires effort, initiative and individual action that goes beyond the norm of even bad behaviour, the punishment should be much bigger.

The teaching of Rabbi Shimon ben Netanel is therefore a wake-up call to anyone who is contemplating the performance of any wrongful act. We should ask ourselves whether our behaviour is normatively bad or whether it is בִּפְנֵי עַצְמֶֽךָ, a stand-out deed that others are not also doing. If it is, we should seriously think twice before doing it since the prospect of severe punishment lies ahead. The fact that we are in effect "going solo" should be sufficient warning.

For comments and discussion of this post on Facebook, click here.